Digital cameras, It isn't all about Mega Pixels!

[nighthawk]

I suppose even those of us that fly fish and are shutterbugs get caught up in the more is better craze when it come to Mega Pixels. You know that thing about more Mega Pixels = better resolution = better photographs. To hear the manufacturers talk one would think that you need a huge Mega Pixel count to take great photographs. Simply not true. Sure the more Pixels that image sensor has the higher the resolution should be but I put it to you that lens quality and optical zoom are every bit as vital to image quality as are Mega Pixels. A couple of pros put it to me like this:

A camera with a lower mega pixel count, say about 6 mega pixels, but a good quality lens with an optical zoom of 5x and up will give you excellent results up through the 16x20 print range comparable to, if not better than, a higher mega pixels camera with a poor zoom and lens quality.

Consider the following photos. One was taken with a 6.1 mega pixel camera with a decent brand name lens and the other with a10 mega pixel camera with a generic lens. Both are DSLR cameras so zoom is entirely dependent on the lens.

Photos removed by author!

The first image was taken with the 6.1 mega pixel camera, hand held, good zoom lens and without any image stabilization/shake reduction, tripod or remote shutter release.

The second image was taken with a 10 mega pixel camera, generic macro fixed focus lens, on a tripod with a remote shutter release.

Use the tripod and shutter release on the 6.1 Mega Pixel camera and the shot will be every bit as good if not better than the higher meg camera due to the quality of the lens.

What does all of this have to do with fly fishing? Well, no matter what type of camera you buy, DSLR or Point & Shoot, avoiding the Mega Pixel craze while concentrating on optical zoom and lens quality will save you more money to spend on fly fishing gear and trips.